Visible index-card system



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 u j 3 Mala /H a} w W 1?, M 7 n ./M n M W. A. RINGLER VISIBLE INDEX CARD SYSTEM Filed Feb. 19, 1924 Sept. 18, 1928.

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INVENTORSI 4. l f a M 1 ATTORNEYS Sept. 18, 1928.

W. A. RINGLER VISIBLE INDEX CARD SYSTEM Filed Feb. 19, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 04 L M/E. /0

IIII v INVENTORS I mean. 4. M:

" ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 18, 1928.

UNITED STATE-S PATENT OFFICE.

A. 'RDIGLEZR, .OF YHLLADELPHIA, PENNSYLVAENLA, ASSIGNOR EEO GLOBE- WERINICK'E COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

VISIBLE INDEX- CAR-D SYSTEM.

' Application filed February 19, 1924. Serial No. 693,781.

My present invention comprehends a novel .VLlSlble index .card system wherein the cardholders .and cards are of novel construction, and Whereinthe cardsare seeuredzto the cardholders ina novel manner.

It ".further .com-prehends a novel construction of :card-holders wherein one fold of a cardholder .is provided with one or more tongues adapted to :pass through one or more (0 slitsin another fold of such cardholder.

It :funther oom rehends a novel construc- 'tion f a card W ich is divided .by a weakened portion into .a holding portion and a recording portion, the holding portion be- (5 ing provided withone'or more slits.

Other novel features of construction and advantage will hereinaiiter more clearly appearinthe detailed description and the appended claims.

For the ,purpose of illustrating the inven- :tion, I have shown in the accompanying .drawingsa typical embodiment-of it, which, in practice, will give reliable and satisfactory results. It is however to be understood that this embodiment is typical only .and rthat .the various instrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variously arranged and organized, .and that the invcntion is not limited to the precise arrange merit and organization of these instrumentalities :as herein .set forth.

Figure l. is a top plan view of a portion of a .visible index card system, embodying my invention.

Figure 2 is a .top plan view of a card in detached ,position.

Figure 3 is a plan view of a card-holder before it has been folded.

Figure 4 is a plan view showing cardholders and cards in their assoinbled ,position to :enable .the backs of .the cards to be used.

Figure 5 is a SQTtlOIl on line 55 of Figure 1.

F i-gure 6 is a top plan view of another em :bodiment of my invention.

Figure 7 d8 .21 rear plan view of assembled card-holders and cards which have been removed from a frame.

Figure 8 is a lan view of a card-holder seen in Figure 7 e-forel it has been folded.

Fig-tire 9 is a plan view of cardholders and cards, assembled in a different menu from that seen in Figure 7.

Figure 10 is a section on line 10'l0 .0;f Figure 6.

Figure 11 is .a section 011 ine 1l-.l1=0f Figure 7.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding ,parts.

Referring to the drawings:

1 designates a frame .of'a visible index card system embodying the invention The 'f-l'alne 1 has .0 osite marginal edges 5111- turned :to form .t 6 guide flanges 2 between which and thebody-pontion of the irame the free ends of the card-holders 3 are slidable.

Each card-holder is .formed from a stnip of material and is provided with hingeformin-g means such as tor example a weakened line 4 which divides it into a rear fold 5 and .a front fold 6. The .front fold .6 has formed from it one or more projecting tongues T which are adapted to pass thnougli one or more slits 8 in .the other fold.

The slits .8 at their freesends are defleoted outwardly as at 9, 10 designates the cards which are divided by a weakened line 11 into .a holding portion 12 and .a recording portion 13. The holding portion is pn0- vidcd with one .or more 14 parallel .to its edge and to the line 1L In the embodiment of my invention seen in Figures 1 to 5 inclusive, the cards are secured to their card-holders by ,passing the tongues '7 through the slits 14 .of .a card .and .then through the slits 8 0f the cardholder so that the free ends .of the tongues T extend towards the recording portion of the card which it-carries.

The Cit-l-(l liOiClOlS are nested one within the other so that the cards overlap as at l5 ,to form a visible index.

The. card-holderscan be assembled so that one side of the recording portion of the cards can he used for recording as seen in Figure 1. or so (that lt'heopposite sides of the .cards can be used for reconciling as seen :in Figure 4, it being understood that all it is necessary to do is :to reverse the card holders in assembling them with respect to the frame. litwillbe understood that any indi vidual'card and its cardholder can re ersed so that the ,fleveree side {0f :tll

is visible and can be readily inspected. If however, a number of juxtaposed card hold ers and cards are reversedin this mannerit will be necessary tobend up the card and the upper top face of the reverse side of the card will not be visible, due to the overlapping of the folds of the juxtaposed card holders;

For thus reversing a. large number of consecutively adjacent cards in the particular manner last above noted, enough space will be needed in the holdin gframe for sliding the card-carrying holders apart. When the holding frame is filledor substantially so 1 and it is desired toreverse alarge number or all of the cards without removing them from their holders, this can be effected in a differentway which is clearly obvious from the construction shown in the drawings. In such caseit is only necessary to remove from the frame any one or all or as many as may be desired of the card-carrying holders, and then simply, on any holder, to swing or shift the card therein out of contact with one of '3 the folds of the holder and 'into contact with shifted in the holder so as to lie against the inner surface of the other fold or rear fold 5 L- "'It will be noted in this connection that the open V shape of the card-holding strips 3 provides for thus shifting the cards there- 'in as well as for the nesting of the series of card-carrying holders in superposed relation by similar reference characters.

lhe card-holders 16 are formed in a different manner, see more particularly Figure 8.

Each card-holder 16 consists of a strip of foldable material having a weakened line 17 on which it is adapted to be bent to form a front fold 18 and a rear fold 19. The fold 18 has one or more tongues 20 formed from it which are adapted to be received in one or more slits 21 in the fold 19. The tongues pass through the slits 14 of the cards and then through the slits 21 of the card-holder and in the embodiment of my invention, shown in Figure 7, the tongues extend towards the rear of the card-holders. In assembling the card-holders, the locking tongues of a card-holder may overlap a fold of a juxtaposed card-holder as seen in Figures 9 and 10 or one may be nested between the folds of a card-holder above it as seen in Figures 7 and 11. In both cases visibly overlapping portions 22 of the cards are formed.

In all of the embodiments of the invention herein shown the holding portion of the card is preferably of substantially the same width as the width of the folds of the card- "employed are preferably nearer the top of the card than they are to the weakened line or to the recording portion.

In effecting a reversal of the cards in the frame. it is to be noted that'the disclosed invention is not limited to a front View arrangement such as appears in the rear plan view of Fig-7, nor" as'appears'in Fig. 9, since the open V-shaped card-carrying holders such as 16, may be "arranged innested superposed relation with eitherside of the cards 10 directed towards the front of the frame and exposing the visiblema'rgins 22 such as appear in the lower .part of Fig. 6. For example, referring to Fig. 11,'in order to effect such a reversal it would only be necessary to shift the cards 10 out of contact with the inner surface of. the front fold 18 and into contact at "the inner surface of the rear fold 19 and then reassemble the card-carrying holders in the same manner as shown in Fig. 6. Then the other or reverse sides of the cards will be towards the front, as is obvious from the construction shown in the drawings, particularly from Fig. 11. It is also obvious that either all of the cardcarrying holders or any less number thereof that may be desired may be thus reversed.

It will now be apparent that I have de vised. a new and useful visible index card system which embodies the features of ad vantage enumerate-d as desirable in the statement of the invention and the above description, and while I have, in the present instance, shown and described a preferred embodiment thereof which will give in practice satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that this embodiment is susceptible of modification in various particulars without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

Having thus described my invention, what 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A card-holder comprising a foldable strip having folds of uniform width throughout their length and having one of its folds provided with a tongue and its other fold provided with a slit to receive said tongue, said slit extending longitudinally of its folder.

2. A card-holder comprising a foldable strip having one of its folds provided with a tongue and its other fold provided with a slit to receive said tongue, said tongue extending at right angles to the median line of the card holder.

3. An index filing card having a weakened line separating itinto a holding portion and a recording portion, the holding portion having a plurality of closed longitudinally extending card-holding slits located nearer to the top of the card than to the recording portion andin longitudinal alignment.

4. A plurality of card-holders, each comprising a foldable strip having one of its folds provided with a tongue and its other fold provided with a slit to receive said tongue, cards secured to said card-holders by said tongues, and a frame in which said card-holders are mounted, the card holders being reversible in said frame without re moving the cards from their holders to bring the opposite sides of the cards to the front.

5. A card-holder comprising'a foldable strip having one fold provided with a tongue which passes through the other fold and a card through which said tongue passes, said folds being of the same width and of greater length than said card to form end holder portions.

6. A card-holder comprising a foldable strip having one fold provided with a tongue which passes through the other fold, and a card having a holding portion of substantially the same width as the folds and through which said tongue passes.

7. A card holder, comprising a folded strip, the folds of which are of the same width, one of said folds being provided with a plurality of tongues and the other of said folds being provided with slits through which said tongues pass to lock the folds together, said slits extending longitudinally of their fold and said tongues respectively extending in a plane to provide for the tongues passing through the respective slits.

8. A card holder, comprising a folded strip having one fold provided with a tongue which passes through the other fold, and a card through which said tongue passes, said card holder being of greater length than the width of said card, and a frame in which the card-carrying holder is removably mounted by means of the ends of the card holder which project beyond the card carried thereby.

9. A substantially V-shaped card holder having diverging arms adapted to receive loosely between them the margin of a card, one of the arms being provided at an intermediate point thereof with a card-holding tongue to pass through the card and through the other arm of the card holder.

10. In a card system, a card-holding strip substantially V-shaped in cross section with diverging arms of substantially equal Width, a card having a margin adapted to be loosely received between the arms and provided with a weakened fold line along the exposed edges of the arms, and a card-holding tongue formed on and projecting from an intermediate point of one of the arms through the card and through the other arm.

11. A card system comprising a series of superposed card-carrying card holders in which each such unit comprises a substantially transversely V-shaped card-holding strip comprising arms in diverging relation, a card-holding tongue formed on one of the anus at an intermediate point of its width and extending across the intervening space and through the other arm, and a card having a margin in the space between and adapted to lie against the inner surface of one of the arms or to be shifted to lie against the inner surface of the other arm and through which card said tongue projects, the series of card carrying V-shaped card holders being nested in superposed relation, and adapted to be thus nested with either side of the cards at the front and to expose at the front a visible lower margin on one side or the other of all of the cards, according to which one of the arms of the holder any card may lie against.

12. A card system comprising a series of superposed card-carrying card holders in which each such card unit comprises a substantially transversely V-shaped card-holding strip having diverging arms of substantially the same width, a card-holding tongue formed on one of the arms at an intermediate point of its width and extending across the intervening space and through the other arm, and a card having a margin received loosely into the open space between the arms and; through which the tongue passes. so that the card may be shifted to lie against the inner surface of either one or the other of the arms of its holder, such card having a weakened line for folding the card along and substantially flush with the exposed edges of the arms so that the card may be folded in either direction relatively to its holder, the series of card-carrying V-shaped card holders being nested successively one within another in superposed relation whereby in such series exposed visible margins of all of the cards are provided, which may be of one side or of the other side of any such card according to the shifted position of such card in its holder.

WILLIAM A. RINGLER. 

